Immediate action needed to protect our forests & quality of life

by Rob Savidge45.40scon March 26, 2017

Your attendance is needed at Monday night's City Council meeting. We are on the verge of strengthening our forest laws (and protecting your quality of life) by instituting a "no net loss of forest" policy. But developers are making a last-ditch attempt to sabotage this ordinance, and the Council needs to hear from you.

This ordinance is the culmination of 6-months worth of effort by Aldermen Littman and Arnett, myself, City environmental groups (including the Anne Arundel Sierra Club, the Annapolis Environmental Commission, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Annapolis Neck Peninsula Federation), and City staff. It’s an effort to honor the commitment the City made with the public in our Comprehensive Plan and and to honor an agreement we made with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Unfortunately, after ignoring the democratic process (i.e. the 6 public meetings) for the past half a year, developers now have decided to come in at the 11th hour and attempt to sabotage passage of this new ordinance by creating “alternative facts”, which they have sent to the City Council.

Should this behavior, this disregard for our democratic process, be rewarded with a delay? Should developers be allowed to remove forests without replacing them, which directly impacts the health of our creeks? Should the City disregard agreements they have made with the public, agreements to increase our tree canopy?

With your help, we can stop the developers and protect our quality of life. Please consider attending the City Council meeting Monday night (likely tonight by the time you read this) to give testimony during the public comment period, which is fortunately towards the beginning of the meeting. If you can't attend, please consider contacting your Alderperson.

Tell the Council “No Delay!” Developers are pushing for a delay to study the issue more, which is based on their “alternative facts” that there is no space to reforest or increase our urban tree canopy. This is false. The original 2006 agreement we made with DNR estimated that we had between 395 to over 1,000 acres available for expanding our urban tree canopy. The Annapolis Environmental Commission and I, using Chesapeake Conservancy data, put together this report that shows we have at least 324 acres available for reforestation with much more available for urban tree canopy expansion. We know we have space, so let’s not delay the ordinance on that pretense.

WHAT: Public Hearing/vote at Annapolis City CouncilWHEN: Monday, March 27, 2017 7:00 pm - 8:00pm WHERE: City Council Chambers - 160 Duke of Gloucester Street, Annapolis, MD 21401WEAR Green or bring a sign Save the Tree Signs if you have them.